Twitter has reversed a change designed to tackle abuse on the site after some users complained it only served to hide offensive content rather than prevent it.

The social media site announced on Monday that it would no longer send notifications to users when they were added to a list by other Twitter users, but quickly received complaints that this greatly limited the feature and only hid abuse from view and did not stop it.

Members are able to create personalised lists with custom names, a system which some use to abuse others by adding them to lists with offensive titles, which would then appear in notifications.

This sparked the decision to remove the notification feature, however it was withdrawn just two hours after launch following hundreds of complaints from users.

"We heard your feedback - this was a misstep. We're rolling back the change and we'll keep listening," the Twitter Safety account tweeted in reference to the incident.

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Twitter has been frequently criticised for the way it handles incidents of abuse and alleged online bullying, with high-profile users such as Stephen Fry having quit the site over suggestions it does not do enough to protect those on it.

The social media site also reported a loss of £133 million in its most recent financial results as questions remain over the long-term future of the site, despite reporting an increase in users to 319 million.

Twitter has been working on this problem for months after facing waves of criticism, particularly following last year's US election.

The service already has a "mute" button that it recently expanded to include the ability to mute words and phrases.